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Dana International

"The Winner"

Contributed by Jodie Miller and many others

Israel's glamorous transsexual Dana International beat all the odds on Saturday, May 9 to complete a triumphant journey from drag club artiste to Eurovision song contest winner. A statuesque brunette with gleaming white teeth and masses of glittery eye make up, won the annual contest with a catchy dance tune called "Diva." Dana has provoked controversy in her homeland. Orthodox Jews protested at her selection to represent their country in the year of its 50th anniversary, saying Israel was sending "a message of darkness."

To celebrate Dana's win TGForum is running a potpourri of news articles that recorded the historic event:


  • May 10, 1998 1:50 p.m. EDT

    TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Israelis took to the streets in celebration late Saturday, cheering and honking horns after homegrown Dana International, a transsexual, won the Eurovision song contest.

    Born Yaron Cohen to immigrant parents from Yemen, Dana International gained fame in Israel as a female impersonator in Tel Aviv night clubs. In 1993, Dana International underwent a sex change operation in London.

    Her nomination in November to represent Israel in the contest caused a stir among some religious Jews, and several powerful Orthodox lawmakers had even considered trying to topple the government over the issue.

    Dana International, whose winning song "Diva," has been a hit in Israel for months, told Israel TV that her victory was a sign of changing times.

    "This just goes to show the world is open-minded and liberated. We are all equal," she said, after the show in Birmingham, England.

    But the ultra-Orthodox reaction was harsh.

    "God is against this phenomenon. It's a sickness you must cure and not give legitimacy," said Deputy Health Minister Rabbi Shlomo Benizri of the religious Shas party.

    "In order to win the Eurovision after 20 years, we had to send a gimmick. It's a sign of the bankruptcy of Israeli song," he added.

    The win comes at a time of deepening rifts in Israeli society over the influence of religion in daily life and will likely be seen in Israel as a victory for secular Israelis.

    Dana International, whose dark gray figure-hugging dress with feathered sleeves was designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, sings in Hebrew, Arabic, French and English.

    It was Israel's third victory in the song contest, making Jerusalem the venue for next year's show.


  • May 10, 1998 12:05:00 AM
    By Rachael Crofts, PA News

    Controversial transsexual Eurovision winner Dana International today said she "forgave" her critics in Israel and added she now planned to "conquer the world". In an exclusive interview the dark-haired star told PA News: "I forgive everyone. My victory has proved that God is with me." She said she wanted to send a message to the orthodox Jewish community in Israel who had tried to block her entry in this, the 43rd song contest. "I want to send them a message of forgiveness and say to them, 'try to accept me, and try understand my kind of life, and my kind of choice'. "What I am does not mean I do not believe in God, and that I am not really part of the Jewish people."

    The former drag queen, who underwent a sex change operation in 1993, said she had been so nervous she had felt her "heart booming" before she went on stage at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena. "My heart was beating very, very bad and I thought my voice would never come out," she said. She added that after her performance the nail-biting climax had left her unsure of who had actually won. "I was so nervous. We did not expect Malta to be such a close competitor. But it was such a relief. I was asking all my friends, is it number one?, did we win, did we win?"

    She revealed she had decided to change her dress to a black fitted gown topped with colourful feathers - designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier - to make an impact in the finale. "We thought the song required a very comfortable dress, and this dress was too delicate and too complicated to have the movement I wanted. I thought it was in the song's best interest to put another dress on for the performance. But Jean-Paul Gaultier deserved a victory not a competition. He is a great designer, and I owe him a lot. This title is also his present."

    She added that she did not think the gay or transsexual community across Europe had swung the voting in her favour, saying: "In the Netherlands there is a big gay community but we got only five points. But from Eastern European countries we received lots of points, so you never know. People judged the song and my performance, not my sexuality and I am glad for it."

    She said she hoped Israel would stage the event next year: "I hope they will have the money to do it, but maybe they will take it from the United States, if not," she added.

    As she left for the after show party members of Birmingham's Jewish community gathered outside the gates and cheered the Israeli delegation coach. She added: "I cannot imagine that this is really happening to me. I tried not to think about number one for last five months that we were working on this song. It finally happened and I am so grateful to Europe that it allowed me to bring my country such a wonderful gift. I am dying to go to telephone my mother. She is probably crying and crying. Now I want Europe to get to know me. This is not actually my type of music. Now Europe will hear what Dana is really like. We chose this song for the Eurovison Song Contest, but we have so many more good songs."

  • 5/11/98: The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised on Israeli Television last night that he would find the budget to host next year's Eurovision.

    Dana, when asked how she felt about her victory, said, "I can't believe it. It is such a great feeling, I wish you all could feel the same."


  • May 11, 1998 4:10:00 PM
    By Dafna Linzer (Associated Press Writer)

    JERUSALEM (AP) -- Appalled that an Israeli transsexual singer won Europe's biggest song contest, religious leaders vowed Monday to block the competition from being held in Jerusalem next year. "As far as I am concerned it shouldn't take place in the Holy Land at all," said Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor, Haim Miller. "It should stay in the land of the gentiles."

    In the past, the Eurovision contest was ignored by Israel's Orthodox community. But this year's entry by Dana International caused outrage. Religious legislators have called the singer a disgrace to the Jewish state and even considered toppling Netanyahu's government over the issue.

    Secular Israelis, however, can't get enough of the sultry singer, who was a man before a sex change operation in 1993.

    The singer's supporters hailed her Saturday victory in the Eurovision contest in Birmingham, England, as a sign of increasing acceptance of the country's gay community. Dana International won with the song "Diva."

    "They (the religious) didn't want her to go but she went and she won big," said Niv Sever, a gay politician with the liberal Meretz party.

    Although Miller was instrumental in halting Israel's premier modern dance troupe, Batsheva, from performing seminude last month at Israel's jubilee bash, ultra-Orthodox leaders may face a difficult battle in banning Eurovision from Jerusalem.

    Israel considers Jerusalem to be its capital and hopes the popular contest, watched by millions, may lend some international legitimacy to its claim of sovereignty over all of the disputed city. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future capital.

    Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert dismissed his deputy as a "blabbermouth" and called his threats to prevent the Eurovision contest from coming to the holy city "laughable."

    "Eurovision will take place in Jerusalem," he said.

    But just in case, the speaker of Israel's parliament offered Jerusalem's Knesset building -- where city hall has no authority -- as a back-up venue.


  • Monday May 11 3:20 PM EDT
    By Howard Goller

    JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to host the Eurovision annual song contest next year in Jerusalem, shrugging off objections from ultra-Orthodox Jews who regard the event as sacrilegious.

    Israeli singer Dana International, who was a man until a sex-change operation in 1993, won the songfest in Britain Saturday night, defeating performers from 24 other countries and reigniting a dispute with religious Jews who said she defied God.

    "I congratulated her and all those who took part in the effort," Netanyahu told reporters when asked his views of the transsexual's triumph.

    "This appears to me to be deserving of congratulations. It's definitely an honorable achievement."

    The next Eurovision is a year away but, like most issues in Israel, it was fair game for politicians always quick to quarrel. The winning country in the celebrated mix of music and kitsch traditionally hosts the event the following year.

    Dana International's self-proclaimed gift to Israel on its 50th anniversary -- she won for the catchy dance tune "Diva" -- fanned the flames of a raging battle between an overwhelmingly secular majority in the Jewish state and a small but powerful ultra-Orthodox minority.

    Radio talk-show hosts had speculated, only half-jokingly, that Netanyahu risked the collapse of his government, which includes ultra-Orthodox parties, if he congratulated Dana International, a leggy brunette previously known as Yaron Cohen.

    Haim Miller, the ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor of Jerusalem, pledged Sunday to do everything in his power to bar the contest from the holy city next year.

    Asked Monday whether he supported Eurovision taking place in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: "Certainly -- and it will be."

    Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert agreed, telling reporters: "What Haim Miller says at most represents only himself, and even that I am not sure about. This municipality is against censorship in matters of culture and art."

    Israel last hosted the Eurovision in Jerusalem in 1979. Since that time, the numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the holy city and their political clout have soared.

    The two sides last clashed in Israel over the right of a modern dance troupe to strip to underwear during the country's main 50th anniversary show last month. The troupe boycotted the event rather than appear in tights, as had been proposed.

    Secular Israelis, most of whom serve in the army, assail the tens of thousands of military exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews who nonetheless receive huge sums for their schools and religious institutions.

    The ultra-Orthodox say they are engaged in religious studies that have preserved Judaism through the ages.

    While Israeli politicians took the Eurovision issue seriously, some critics voiced another view. Despite the large television audience the event draws, they see the more than 40-year-old event as an anachronism and a monument to bad taste.


  • Tuesday, May 12, 1998 4:46:00 PM
    By Laura King (Associated Press Writer)

    JERUSALEM (AP) -- She looked fabulous: slinky, sleeveless top, tight black pants, masses of dark hair, dazzling smile. And she sounded -- well, as fabulous as is necessary to win the Eurovision song contest, a sugary but hugely watched pop event.

    So why on earth was Israeli diva Dana International fielding earnest questions Tuesday about religious coercion, civil liberties and artistic freedom?

    Because up until a sex-change operation five years ago, Dana -- whose name is pronounced DAH-nah -- was a man, one Yaron Cohen.

    And since her weekend Eurovision victory, she has reluctantly become a symbol of the increasingly bitter rift between Israel's secular majority and its ultra-religious minority.

    The country's Orthodox establishment has denounced her as an abomination, unnatural and decadent, a disgrace to the Jewish state. The secular side responded with a volley of complaints about narrow-mindedness.

    Dana herself is trying to stay above the fray. At her first news conference since her return from Britain, where the song contest was held, not a harsh word crossed her bee-stung, cherry-tinted lips.

    "I want everyone to be happy," she sweetly told a jostling mob of journalists and gawkers who came to see her welcomed home by Israel's tourism minister. "My victory was a present to all of Israel."

    Dana's popularity is seen as a sign of increasing acceptance of gay and alternative lifestyles, even in Israel's highly macho culture. With word of her victory, raucous late-night celebrations broke out Sunday in Tel Aviv's central square.

    Dana's appeal clearly cuts across lines of gender and sexual preference. Female staffers of the Tourism Ministry -- some looking eerily like the diva, with elaborate makeup, tight skirts and lots of hair -- pushed their way into the news conference, clambering onto chairs and craning their necks to get a glimpse of her.

    "Just look at her nails!" one exclaimed.

    Asked about her role in the religious-secular rift, the singer said religious pressure concerns her, but "I'm just so proud to represent my country."

    Even so, the role of secular symbol seems to fit almost as snugly as one of Dana's feather-and-sequin dresses.

    The controversy comes on the heels of a battle over a modern dance troupe's planned seminude performance at Israel's 50th anniversary celebrations last month. In that skirmish, religious forces triumphed: the dancers refused to perform after being ordered to cover up.

    Even before Dana's return, controversy erupted over plans to hold the annual Eurovision contest -- which consistently draws an audience in the hundreds of millions -- in Jerusalem next year.

    Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Deputy mayor, Haim Miller, said Monday that events like Eurovision should "stay in the land of the gentiles." An irritated Mayor Ehud Olmert called his deputy a blabbermouth.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself said the contest would "absolutely" take place as planned in Jerusalem.

    Israeli commentators, meanwhile, embarked on an almost Talmudic dissection of what Dana's win said about Israel's standing in the world. An opinion piece in the Maariv newspaper suggested that her transsexuality outweighed what might have otherwise been a predisposition against an Israeli singer.

    "According to the scale of political sympathy for Israel in the world, we had about a zero chance of winning," wrote commentator Sarit Fuchs. "But the politically correct is stronger than the political."


    Dana International Official Biography

    Dana International (singer) recorded her first album in 1993 and it quickly went gold. A year later, her second, Umpatampa was a platinum success and she was voted Israel's Best Singer of the Year. In 1996 Dana, a former drag artist, produced a third album, Magnuna (Insane in Arabic) which brought her a wider audience, not just in Israel but abroad as well. In Egypt and Jordan more than five million pirate cassettes were sold. Since then she has performed in Los Angeles and Miami.

    Svika Pick (conductor/composer) is a leading figure in the world of Israeli music. He has devoted his life to music as both a singer and a composer. He has a huge following and his albums enjoy large sales.

    Yoav Ginai (lyricist), born in Jerusalem and living in Tel Aviv, studied communications and journalism. He is now the manager of Business Radio and The Voice of Israel Radio. He is a senior producer and editor of many radio and television broadcasts, especially in the entertainment and music field. He has also written lyrics for such Israeli singers as Yardena Arazy, Izhar Cohen, Dou Datz and Adam.


    DIVA
    There is a woman who is bigger then life
    She has senses nobody else has
    There is magic and there are hard days
    And a stage, which is all hers
    To the angels Diva is an empire
    On the stage Diva is hysteria
    She is all a love song

    Viva, we shall shout in joy
    Viva Victoria
    Aphrodita
    Viva for Diva
    Viva Victoria
    Cleopatra

    There are women, tears of life
    They will carry out a prayer with no words
    To the angels Diva is an empire
    On the stage Diva is hysteria
    She is all a love song

  • 5/12/98: After the show is over... Many people are asking why Israel is in the contest, as it is not a European country. The answer is simply that eligibilty for the contest is determined by membership of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union), not geography. . .

    The official word from the EBU is that competing countries will be able to sing in any language next year. However, the revised official rules for the 1999 contest will not be available for some time yet.

    Speaking of Guildo, apparently 70% of the available audience in Germany tuned into the contest on Saturday night.

    Eurovision was watched by over 100 million people in 33 European countries, as well as Australia, Canada and Korea. Slightly less than than visited our web site...

    Here's the final order as it appeared on BBC TV just before 11pm on May 9th, 1998. There was some discrepancy with the Spanish vote, though it didn't affect the winners. However, it did move Germany up into 7th place. For an updated breakdown click here. If you experience any browser problems with that page, then click here for an alternative.

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